12-17, JOHN STREET

A terrace of six houses, now offices, was built around 1770, with alterations in the mid-19th century. The buildings are constructed of brick with limestone dressings, brick party walls and stacks, and slate and pantile roofs. The houses have a double-depth plan and are arranged over three storeys with attics and basements. Each house originally had a two-window range, with No.12 and No.13 having three windows.

The ground floors now feature shop fronts with pilaster strips leading to a cornice and parapet, with a ramped design to No.14 and a stepped design to Nos.13 and 15. The shop fronts have pilasters to the fascias and cornices. No.12 has a six-panel door and a rectangular overlight with margin panes. No.13 has a left-hand doorway. No.14 features a left-hand doorway, an overlight with margin panes, and a tripartite plate-glass window. Nos.15 and 16 are a reverse pair, with scrolled fascia consoles; No.16 has a plate-glass window with slim mullions. No.17 has a three-panel door and a plate-glass window. Upper floor windows are plate-glass sashes with five stepped voussoirs, with 6/6-pane sashes to Nos. 12 & 17. No.14 has a dormer with early 19th-century wrought-iron railings featuring pointed arches and quatrefoils.

The left return to No.12 consists of two sections, including a two-storey extension to the rear separated by a narrow recess from the three-storey gabled front. This section has six-pane sashes with cambered heads, with the right-hand end blind. Similar windows are found at the rear in a two-window range.

The interior features lateral dogleg winder stairs with slim column-on-vase balusters, ramped handrails, an uncut string, and column newels. There is also a narrower framed newel attic stair and semicircular-arched brick vaults.